Treatment of corks.



- without introducin UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEONHARD PINK, OF BERLIN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOB, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO

DUTCH HOLDING COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

TREATMENT OF CORKS.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

7 Be it known that I, LEoNHARI) PINK, chemist, resident of 4 Gleditsch street, in the city of Berlin, Empire of- Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Treatment of Corks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

The invention relates to the treatment of corks, and the object of the invention is to cover corks in such a manner that they will resist the introduction of foreign matter,

any poisonous combinations that will taint the liquid in the bot-- tle, and also so thoroughly treat them as to prevent the coating being removed by immersion in water, and it consists essentially in the treatment as more particularly set forth hereinafter and pointed out in the claim.

According to the former atent, granted to me in Germany, under umber 227918, corks are coated with a solution of cellulose in cuprammonium oxid and after being dried they are then treated with sulfuric acid in order to extract the oxid of copper and to make the cellulose like parchment. The present invention aims to simplify this process. In place of the solution of cellulose in ammonia of oxid of copper, use is "made of celluloid dissolved in amylacetate or a solution of collodion into which the corks are dipped. After the evaporation of the amylcetate or of the ether-alcohol, the corks are put into a sulfuric acid bath, in the manner known, where the coatingis rendered parchmentlike.

This process has the advantage that the coating does not contain any poisonous combinations of copper and does not show any pores which are formed by the extraction of the combinations of copper.

The following example will illustrate the processaThe corks are being dipped into a two per cent. solution of nitro-cellulose with or without the addition of cam her in amyl- Patented Mar. 18, 1913.

acetate; after having been su ciently saturated they are taken out and dried and then put into a bath of sulfuric acidv of about 60 degrees Baum at an ordinary temperature. After that the corks are rinsed and dried. The action of the acid results in the p-arch mentizing of the coating ap lied to the cork which parchmentizing is ca ried on due to the action of the acid. The corks, thus treated, show a dull, parchmentlike coating of such elasticity that when the corks expand on account of their being soaked in boiling water, the coating will not be torn. Furthermore, this skin will not be destroyed by friction or pressure in the neck of the bottle. In contrast therewith, the corks coated with a solution of nitro-cellulose and withoutan after-treatment of sulfuric acid, cannot be softened any more in hot water, but are and remain hard and useless, the coating gradually peeling oil and becoming cracked.

What I claim as'my invention is:

The treatment of corks herein described, consisting in coating the corks by dippin them in celluloid dissolved in a solution 0 amylacetate or its equivalent and in subjecting the corks 'to sulfuric acid of such concentration and for such time as to parchmentlze the coating.

SIgned at Montreal, Quebec, Canadathis 30th. day of September, 1911.

LEONHARD PINK.- Witnesses:

G. H. Tar'ismonn,

H. R. TAYLOR. 

